BJP bows down

The mighty-Bharatiya Janata Party had finally bowed its head to the rule of law by accepting the promotion of Uttarakhand high court chief justice, Justice K M Joseph, to be appointed the judge of Supreme Court. The BJP government kept the issue in pending since January this year and had even made several attempts to deny Justice Joseph’s elevation.

The BJP is not happy with Justice Joseph, for the reason that he as the chief justice of the Uttarakhand high court had dismissed the President’s Rule in the State in 2016. Perhaps, this was the only State where the Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s regime tried to impose the President’s Rule and finally failed because of Justice Joseph.

The Supreme Court Collegium headed by Chief Justice Deepakh Misra had first recommended Justice Joseph’s name, besides others on January 10, this year for promotion in the Supreme Court. The Modi government considered the other names, but kept Justice Joseph’s name aside. It had asked the Supreme Court Collegium on April 30 this year, to re-examine the name as Justice Joseph has no seniority to be promoted to the Supreme Court. However, the Supreme Court Collegium had once again recommended his name insisting that he must get the elevation. The government also claimed that several State high courts have no representation in the Supreme Court and Kerala High Court, from where Justice Joseph had come, had enough representation and Justice Joseph’s promotion would be an additional representation to Kerala, while other States are deprived.

The Supreme Court Collegium had once again rejected the Central government’s argument and recommended his name once again on May 16, 2018. The government expected that the Supreme Court, which had seen a historical revolt by four judges led by Justice Jasti Chalameswar, would also differ on Justice Joseph’s elevation. However, even after the retirement of Justice Chalameswar, the collegium had remained firm on promoting Justice Joseph forcing the BJP government to come to terms with it.

Finally, the government had agreed to promote Justice Joseph and had sent a communication to the Supreme Court on this. An order promoting Justice Joseph is likely to be issued on Monday, sources in the national capital said.